Re-membering Where You Come From
An Ancestral Healing Retreat for Women
27 February – 2 March | The Wilde, near Braidwood NSW
A 4-day immersive retreat to map your healthy ancestors, tend intergenerational patterns and remember that it didn’t start with you, so it doesn’t have to end with you either.
Do some patterns in your life feel personal, yet not entirely yours?
When we widen the lens to include ancestry and survival, many ways of coping begin to make sense.
Ancestral healing isn’t about blame.
It’s about recognising both harm and health, so your nervous system can find safety and choice.
This retreat offers a grounded way to meet your lineage through relationship, ritual, creativity, and the body’s knowing.
For the Women who...
sense that some of your struggles did not begin with you
are curious about ancestral healing but want something grounded, ethical and trauma-informed
are drawn to creative and symbolic processes rather than purely cognitive work
want to explore lineage without being overwhelmed by it
value intimacy, steadiness and depth over spectacle or catharsis
are ready to put down roles, responsibilities and caregiving for a few days and tend your own inner world
This retreat is for women aged 18+.
It is a private, intimate space and is not suitable for mothers caring for young children, teens or babies in arms.
Unburden inherited weight.
Gently loosen ancestral patterns that were never yours to carry.
Map your lineage.
Reconnect with healthy ancestors, strength and continuity across time.
Remember it didn’t start with you.
Meet your story in a kinder context.
Work with the dreaming body.
Access ancestral wisdom through symbol, dream and embodied ritual.
Craft a vessel of repair.
Create an Ancestor Doll to hold story, remembrance and becoming.
This is not a history lesson, and it’s not about re-living pain.
This is a carefully held, trauma-informed retreat for women who sense that parts of their story were shaped long before they were born. For women who are ready to meet that inheritance with steadiness, compassion and choice.
Across four days, you’ll work with ancestral healing as an embodied, creative, relational process; through earth-based practices, guided psychotherapeutic work, equine connection, dream processes and the making of an Ancestor Doll as a living vessel of story and repair.
What Women Say…
I wanted to reach out and say thank you for so generously and warmly hosting us at the Wilde. It was really exactly what I needed, and I very much felt all the pieces of myself being called back to one place and one state. The program you put together for us was just right, as was the setting.
~ Yolande
Hollie holds a beautifully open, safe and creative space for women to be in connection with one another, the earth, and ourselves. I was filled up and can still feel the vibrations of warmth, strength and knowing that were stirred within me while at the retreat.
~ Helaine
Hollie holds space like no one else. Time slows, connections grow and self knowing deepens. In community women co-create magical self crafting moments full of laughter, story, curiosity and compassion. With Hollie’s holistic and collaborative mentorship and immersed in country I’m invited back to my Self. I come home with the gifts of clarity, healing and agency.
~ Monica
This retreat is designed to help you:
Understand how ancestral patterns shape your present life, without pathologising yourself
Gently tend intergenerational trauma in ways that do not require re-telling painful stories
Strengthen your relationship with your own inner authority and belonging
Reconnect with healthy ancestors, not only inherited wounds
Leave with a tangible, symbolic object ~ an Ancestor Doll ~ that holds story, repair and continuity
This is not a substitute for therapy.
It is deeply therapeutic, professionally held and grounded in both clinical skill and ancestral technologies.
What We’ll Do Together...
Orientation & Land Connection...
Arrive into relationship with place, body and circle. Settle the nervous system and begin the work held by land and rhythm.
Ancestor Doll Making...
Craft a vessel of story using natural fibres and cloth dyed from the land. No prior making experience needed; you are guided every step.
Mapping Healthy Ancestors...
Explore lineage beyond trauma. Locate strength, skill, love and continuity across generations.
Dreaming, Ceremony & Story...
Cross thresholds through dream, fire and shared witnessing. Story is carried into the doll as a living act of remembrance.
Ancestral Psychotherapeutic Work...
Trauma-focused processes held professionally and ethically. Work at a pace that honours boundaries and nervous system safety.
Equine-Assisted Processes...
Ground-based experiences with horses as ancestral companions. Participation is optional; being outside the fence is always welcome.
February 27th-March 2nd, 2026
11am start Friday | 3pm end Monday
$550 for 4 days | $390 early bird if booked before January 14
Max 20 participants | kept small for intimacy and safety
Location: The Wilde, near Braidwood NSW (90 mins Canberra, 60 mins Batemans Bay, 3 hrs Sydney)
Camping accomodation | Optional Upgrades
This Is Perfect for You If...
You’re tired of treating everything as a personal flaw → We reveal the wider inheritance beneath it.
You want an ethical, embodied way to meet intergenerational trauma → This work is steady, trauma-informed and held with care.
You’re drawn to ritual and land-based process → Psychological safety anchors every step.
You don’t want to feel alone in the unseen parts of your story → Circle and witness replace isolation.
You want repair without re-living or re-telling pain → Symbol and making do the work.
You long to connect with strength in your lineage → Healthy ancestors are brought forward.
You need space to put everything down → You are held in your own unfolding.
Profound Work, Even If...
You don’t know anything about your family history → Ancestral healing works without names, facts or family trees.
Your relationship with your family is complicated → Nothing is forced; you carry only what is yours.
You’ve done healing work before and nothing really shifted → This work lands in the body, not just the mind.
You feel nervous about group spaces → The container is trauma-informed, boundaried and invitational.
You’re not “crafty” → You are guided step-by-step; meaning matters more than skill.
Horses feel intimidating or activating → Equine work is optional, ground-based and choice-led.
This retreat is co-facilitated in the essence of collaboration and shared wisdom - together, we offer a container that is creative, relational and held.
Meet your facilitators
hollie wildëthorn
psychotherapist and ritualist
A trauma-focused psychotherapist with transpersonal training, deeply skilled in clinical and group work. hollie’s work weaves psychotherapy, ritual, land-based practice and women’s mysteries into spaces that are steady, ethical and profoundly human; supporting women to meet their lives with clarity, safety and depth.
maiki-jane
multi-disciplinary artist & wellbeing practitioner
With a background in social and emotional wellbeing, community development, eco-arts, nature connection, and sacred craft, maiki-jane walks beside people through times of transition. Her work includes transformational mask-making, eco-arts as healing, bone casting (osteomancy), bush flower essences, circle facilitation and wild foraging.
What will shift after you attend this Retreat?
Say goodbye to…
❌ Doing more self-improvement while the deeper pattern remains untouched.
❌ Carrying emotional weight you can’t quite name or locate.
❌ Feeling responsible for stories, pain or loyalty you never agreed to hold.
❌ Repeating the same ancestral patterns, season after season.
And instead…
✅ Meet your story with less self-blame and more context.
✅ Experience a lived sense of belonging and continuity across generations.
✅ Create a symbolic anchor that helps change land and stay.
✅ Mark a threshold you can return to and say, “That’s where things began to shift.”
A NOTE ON SAFETY AND FIT
This retreat is not a substitute for therapy.
It is designed to complement personal work, not replace ongoing clinical support.
If you’re unsure whether this retreat is right for where you are in your journey, you’re warmly invited to contact hollie to talk it through together. Everything in this retreat is invitational.
You will never be required to share personal trauma stories or disclose beyond your own sense of readiness.
You don’t have to carry this alone.
You don’t have to resolve your lineage in one lifetime.
You can meet it with steadiness, respect, and choice.
Early Bird pricing ends 14 January.
Early Bird Price: $390
Full Rate: $550
Places are limited to just 15 women. Once spots are filled, the circle is closed.
Questions?
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No. There will be moments for gentle reflection and optional sharing about your present experience, but you will never be asked to tell painful or traumatic stories. This boundary is intentional; to keep the group safe and supportive. Healing unfolds in many ways, and in this retreat, it happens through creative process, connection, and ritual, without the need to re-tell your past.
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18+ women are welcome. This is strictly a no children, no babies (even in arms) event. If you feel vulnerable about attending, you’re welcome to book a free 15-minute call with Hollie to explore whether this space is right for you.
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We limit the group to a maximum of 15 women plus staff. Small groups ensure intimacy, safety, and depth.
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No. This work is about meaning, not technique. Many women arrive without any craft background. You’ll be guided step by step, and what you create matters because of the story it holds, not how it looks.
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That’s okay. This retreat isn’t another “fix yourself” approach. It works at the level of ancestry, body and symbol; gently meeting patterns that sit beneath insight alone. Rather than trying to change who you are, the work supports a deeper sense of belonging and continuity, so change can settle and last.
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Yes. The group is intentionally small, trauma-informed and invitational. You choose how much to participate and you’ll never be pushed to share more than feels safe.
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This space is different. Safety, choice, and respect are central. Clear boundaries and trauma-informed care mean you’ll never be asked to perform and you’re always supported to go at your own pace.
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Scholarships and volunteer places may be available. Check. it out here : instituteforselfcrafting.com/retreats
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Yes. Sygfa the teen wolfhound, will be present. Horses and other farm animals will be in the space, but interaction is optional.
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The retreat is held outdoors on forested land, with nature-based crafts and camping as part of the experience. Terrain is uneven and facilities are simple. If you have physical accessibility needs, please reach out before booking so we can explore options together.
More of What Women Say…
I really value these retreats, I’m incredibly grateful for the space. I was so glad to witness how gratitude flowed towards you, because when you receive something so awesome it is hard to shape a thank you that means enough. Big gratitude.
~ Elisa
So thankful for the space you create.
~ Erin
The retreat was so nourishing. It felt so restorative to get away on land and slow down into the more natural timing and rhythm, connecting with other women, animals, drink & swim and hear the sounds of fresh water, participate in the craft and healing processes, eat well, rest. I will definitely recommend to others and be back.
~ Lisa
I honestly was expecting to feel a bit ""woo"" with the nature-earth based side of this, as this is not something I have participated in (physically or psychologically) in a very long time. So it took me back to those roots but without feeling or being too ""woohey"" and abstract.
~ Amber
📷 A note on imagery: The photographs on this page were created during a planned branding shoot with Julia Meon Photography. We are committed to vital representation, while also honouring the privacy and protection of our real ceremonial spaces. These moments are intentionally posed to reflect the feeling and texture of Self Crafting work, without intruding on the sacredness of live circles. Deep thanks to the wildflower women who showed up and lent their sparkle to this epic creation day.
